A recent film was an unsubtle look at what those in power are (not) doing about the current climate emergency, says Ken Huggins of North Dorset Green Party
Surely there’s no longer any doubt; we humans are both the cleverest and the stupidest species on earth.
The satirical film Don’t Look Up portrays the absurdly suicidal responses of politicians, major industry and the media to news that an asteroid will shortly destroy the earth. It would be funny if it didn’t so accurately portray our current world.
It’s not a subtle film, but the time for subtlety has passed. For decades, scientists have patiently reported the disastrous consequences of our fossil fuel addiction, but they have been repeatedly undermined by greedy, dishonest decision-makers. Little wonder many are now taking direct action and risking prison to get the crisis taken seriously. Politicians lie about the seriousness of the situation and avoid telling the truth for fear of losing votes.
Polluting industries protect their massive profits by funding climate denial stories and greenwashing their activities to appear to be taking action. Watch the BBC series Big Oil vs The World for proof of the cover-up.
And finally, corrupt media persist with climate denial. Some of it is subtle, like coverage of the recent record-breaking heatwave showing happy crowds on a beach – “its only nice sunny weather”.
Just the beginning
Failure to take adequate action is resulting in more extreme heatwaves, wildfires, droughts and flooding around the world. And it’s just the beginning. It will get worse. How much worse will depend on what we do now.
In 12 years of government the Tories have scrapped zero carbon building regulations, pulled the plug on railway electrification, undermined the solar panel and onshore wind industries, encouraged fracking, subsidised fossil fuel production etc. …
None of Dorset’s Tory MPs attended the recent emergency climate briefing given to Parliament by the govt’s Chief Scientific Advisor.
We are being failed disastrously, and will pay a high price unless we take action.
Now.
